Bristle assemblies for gutter brooms



March 6, 1962 LECHENE BRISTLE ASSEMBLIES FOR GUTTER BROOMS 15, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed Oct.

[0 1. Zea 4: BY Arr-@9427 March 6, 1962 L. LECHENE 3,023,441

BRISTLE ASSEMBLIES FOR GUTTER BROOMS' Original Filed Oct. 13, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 VIII/11m INVENTOR. Aer/91E ijnited States Patent'O 3,023,441 BRISTLE ASSEMBLIES FOR GUTTER BROOMS Leo L. Lechene, Warren, Mich. (RD. 1, Box 364A, Patton, Pa.)

Original application Oct. 13, 1958, Ser. No. 766,904, now Patent No. 2,917,767, dated Dec. 22, 1959. Divided and this appiication Sept. 25, 1959, Ser. No. 842,484

2 Claims. (Cl. 15-198) This application relates to a new and useful improvement in a bristle assembly for gutter brooms and is a division of application Serial No. 766,904, now US. Patent 2,917,767, dated December 22, 1959. The broom of which the bristles are to form a part are of a rotary type including a circular head adapted to rotate in a horizontal plane, and a plurality of radially disposed racks for support of the bristles. The bristles are customarily made of thin and narrow metal strip which are bound into sheaves of bundles, each of the strips being looped upon itself into a hair pin formation. It is these bundles which are suspended from the racks whereupon the racks are so secured to the circular head that the bristles are clamped to the head at their looped portions.

As the efiiciency of the broom depends in a large degree on the operative efiiciency of the bristles, my invention is directed to an improved assembly of the bristles preliminary to their being mounted upon said racks of the broom.

The specific object of my invention is to form individual strips into sheaves or bundles, in which the strips are clamped to each other permitting the handling of a bundle without the danger that individual strips may be lost, deformed or shifted out of place.

A more specific object of the invention is to have the strips so assembled into individual sheaves as to secure permanent alinement of the strips with respect to each other and to prevent lateral slips thereof. This is necessary to eliminate bunching of the strips in one portion of the sheaf and the consequent thinning of the bristles in an adjoining portion thereof.

I shall now describe my invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the broom, the view including the front portion of a vehicle equipped with a mechanism for the operation of said broom;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged top plan view of the broom including a top plate which is partly broken off to disclose structural elements beneath said plate;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view on line "3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a plurality of bristles preshaped for assembly with similarly preshaped bristles, parts of the bristles being broken off for a better display of the relative positions of the individual strips;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a sheaf of metal bristles forming a part of the broom;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view on line 6-6 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a part of a rack for suspension of the bristles of the broom, the view including a part of a bristle-retaining ring;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged sectional view on line 8-8 of FIG. 5.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

The broom, generally identified by numeral 10, includes a circular metal plate 11 which is to be disposed horizontally. Mounted upon the central portion of the plate is a cylindrical member 12 for connection to a vertical shaft 13 which in its upper portion is enclosed within a sleeve 14 and which is adapted to be rotated about its axis by power means with a truck T; said means are not shown in the drawings. The plate 11 is provided with a plurality of holes 15 (FIG. 2) along its rim for applicathey may be formed to all the fins of a segment 16,

tion of bolts to which I shall refer in the course of this specification.

Secured to the underside of the plate 11 is an annular rack, generally indicated by numeral 16. The rack is composed of a plurality of segments, the number of the segments being a matter of choice. The rack shown'in the drawings consists of four such segments, each defining an arc covering degrees. Each segment includes a solid arcuate wall 17 defined in part by a vertical outer face 18 (FIG. 7). Projecting radially from said wall are a plurality of narrow fins 19 and a plurality of radial spacers 20, the relation therebetween being such that a free space in the form of a slot 19a is left on each side of each respective fin. The spacers are similar to the fins, and, as shown in the drawings, differ from the fins only because they are wider than said fins. This, however, is no critical limitation, as the width of the spacers is more a matter of choice.

Each fin and each spacer are defined, in part, by two vertical sides and by an end face which slants downwardly away from the center of the annular rack as a Whole. Such a face. on a single fin is marked 21 in FIG. 3. The inner face 22 of the wall 17 is similarly sloped, the angle of the slope of said face 22 being approximately the same as that of the sloping face 21 of any of the fins.

At each end, each segment includes a radial shoulder 23 (FIG. 7) which is analogous to a spacer except that its upper face 24 is at the level of the top surface of the wall 17. This top surface of the wall is above the level of the tops of the fins 19 and the spacers 20. In this connection while the top portions of the fins are flat, a radius. At the end extending towards the center of the rack as a is defined by a face 25 (FIG. 7) which slants at the same angle as the faces 21 of the fins.

Each of the fins 19 serves as a means for support of one or more bundles of bristles. A single bundle generally identified by numeral 45 is shown in FIG. 5. It consists of a plurality of thin and narrow strips 40 made of springlike steel of another material having similar characteristics of toughness and resiliency. Two or more strips 40 of the same length are first stacked up longitudinally into a band of double or triple thickness as the case may be, whereupon the band is bent double into a hair pin shape to form a unit generally identified by numeral 41. The unit shown in FIG. 4 includes a looped portion 27 and two legs 26 and 26a of the same length. Next a number of these units preferably six to eight, are assembled side by side so that each leg on one unit is in the plane of the corresponding legs of all other units. Thereupon as shown in FIG. 5, all the legs in the same plane are clamped by two cross strips 28 which at their respective ends are bolted or spot welded to each other. This is done to keep the units in their proper alinement. It must be added here that said cross strips are applied to said units close to their looped portions 27 for the reason which will be explained presently.

The bundles formed as described above, are now placed one by one on the individual fins 19 so as to straddle them, the looped portions of the units fitting over the upper surface of the respective fins as shown in FIGS. 2 and 6, while the clamping strips 28 will be disposed just below the bottom surface of the respective fins. Next when the bundles of the bristles have been placed upon an arcuate member 30 is secured to the inner end faces 21 of the fins 19 and the inner end faces of the shoulders 23. After said retaining member 30 has been so secured to the respective segment, the whole segment is attached to the underside of the plate 11 by means of bolts 35 which are threaded into vertical holes 34 in the said segment.

The plate '11 covering the rack from above is close whole said shoulder 23 enough to the upper surfaces of the respective fins to bear against the looped portions 27 of the respective bundles of the bristles to clamp them against said upper surfaces of the fins, and as the inner surface of the wall 17 of the rack slants downwardly and outwardly, and as the retaining ring 30 also slants in the same direction, the bundles of bristles are deflected outwardly from the center portion of the rack. This is shown in FIG. 3.

There is one important feature in the structure of the broom which still needs to be noted. This pertains to the operative angle of the individual bristles. As already stated, an individual bristle has the form of a fiat, narrow band defined, in part, by two wide faces. During the operative use of the broom, because of the manner in which the bristles are mounted on the fins, it is these wide faces that are disposed crosswise to the direction of the rotary movement of the broom as a whole, thus assuring full efiiciency of the operative capacity of the broom. This efficiency would be lost if the bristles were to move edgewise.

It will be understood that While in the above description I have referred to metal bristles, these may be substituted by bristles made of plastic material, by bristles of vegetable origin, or by bristles of any other suitable substance.

After having described my improvement, what I wish to claim is as follows:

1. A sheaf of bristles for a rotary gutter broom, the sheaf including a plurality of component units arranged side by side, each component unit including a plurality of thin flat single bristles superimposed longitudinally upon each other and bent into a hairpin shape to form for each bristle a looped portion and two opposed legs, the fiat surfaces of the bristles in each leg being parallel, the units being arranged side by side, the one leg of each unit being in the same general plane of all corresponding legs of the remaining units, the other legs of each unit being disposed in another plane, and a transverse opposed pair of strip means applied to and over the legs in each plane intermediate the ends of the legs and their looped portions to clamp the corresponding legs of each unit against displacement.

2. A sheaf of bristles for a rotary gutter broom, the sheaf including a plurality of component units, each unit consisting of a plurality of flat and narrow metal strips superimposed longitudinally and bent double into a hairpin form, each strip having a looped portion and two diverging opposed legs, the fiat surfaces of the strips in each leg being parallel, the units being arranged side by side, the one leg of each unit being disposed in the same plane, the opposed other legs of each unit being disposed in another plane, and a transverse clamp strip extending around and compressively engaging all the legs in the same plane intermediate their ends and their looped portions to grip said legs therebetween to prevent disarrangement of said legs from each other.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 258,117 Quinby May 16, 1382 680,990 Compton Aug. 20, .1901 1,008,382 .Sourek Nov. 14, 1911 1,299,796 Showalter Apr. 8, 1919 1,517,852 Nehf Dec. 2, 1924 2,732,577 Abbrecht Jan. 31, 1956 2,879,631 Peterson Mar. 31, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 92,941 Switzerland Apr. 1, 1922 

